[alehlopeh]

A lot of you won’t want to hear it but HomeKit + iCloud secure video is the only way to go. For one thing it’s end to end encrypted. You can also do ML stuff like face recognition which happens locally on your Apple TV. And you can set it to trigger HomeKit scenes if eg the person in the video isn’t recognized, or if it recognizes a particular person. Yeah Apple bad, blah blah. But they don’t have an incentive to sell your data.

[whatever1]

Unless you explicitly enable Advanced Protection mode for all your devices, Apple stores your key in their servers and will give it to whoever legitimate looking asks for it. Aka ICE etc will definitely be granted access.

[devStorms]

Home data is always E2EE https://support.apple.com/en-us/102651

[varenc]

I don't think that's true for HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV). Advanced Protection turns on E2EE for various iCloud services like iCloud backups and Apple photos. But HKSV is already E2EE'd and the decryption keys aren't part of the device's iCloud backup. At least that's my understanding. I believe health data and the iCloud keychain is similar.

[digiown]

I wouldn't trust E2EE implemented by an entity against itself that can also push arbitrary updates in principle. Also, any E2EE product that has a non-E2EE mode seems prone to accidental leaks.

[nozzlegear]

> Unless you explicitly enable Advanced Protection mode for all your devices

This is very easy though, you just go to your iCloud account settings under the settings app and enable it. It should be on by default imo, but I understand the argument for why it isn't.

Either way, enabling it is not a barrier and ICE cannot be granted access once you do unless you yourself give them that access.

[zamadatix]

When I got an Apple TV I never expected the main value I'd get out of it was being a smart home hub. I do wish the automations were a bit more programmable. Other than that it has been perfect, everything even failed over to my other Apple TV when rearranging the living room without having to think about setting either up as hubs.

[dewey]

Also it's the perfect Tailscale exit node that's always online in your home (They have a tvOS app)

[Marsymars]

I'm a heavy Apple user (Apple TVs, Mac Mini, iPad), but we also have Android phones in my household, so HomeKit Secure Video is a no-go.

If Apple ever releases an Apple Home app for Android, I'd transition my entire home over by the time of my next Google Home Premium subscription renewal.

[jonahx]

I would like to replace Ring with something fully local.

Local ML/face recognition would be a bonus. Ability to sync to a private owned server owned by me would be a bonus.

I'm assuming there are projects out there that would enable this -- does anyone have recommendations?

[brewtide]

Frigate NVR tied to a home assistant instance has my phone getting proactive notifications about people, birds, and buses (in their select areas...). It's not the easiest thing to setup, but if you're using ethernet cameras it seems to work very very well. The few POS wyze cameras's I have on the system tend to cause some problems, but I know for a fact it's 100% a combination of a) wifi (no matter how 'quality') b) wyze.

So, yeah. Look into frigate.

[radredgreen2]

And you can run open source camera firmware on a disconnected vlan if you don't want to trust a phone app or a camera with internet access.

https://github.com/radredgreen/wyrecam

[willio58]

And there’s no subscription right?

[righthand]

Icloud subscription.

[p-e-w]

There’s actually another alternative: Just don’t install surveillance in your home. Approximately nobody had it 20 years ago. Before asking which unreliable, overpriced, invasive gadget to buy, think about whether you really need any of them.

[zamadatix]

Approximately nobody was using everything x years ago. That's not really a measure of what's nice to have and what's not, it's a measure of how long the nice to have has been around.

[nozzlegear]

Why? I like to keep an eye on my dogs when we're away, and it's all done securely using HomeKit video. My iCloud is e2e encrypted and the camera doesn't upload anywhere besides there.

What's the invasive part? Not giving my dogs privacy when we're out of the home?

[ThatMedicIsASpy]

A 1080p cam with night vision a mic and speakers is 20 bucks. Baby monitors where more expensive in the past (audio only).

[Barrin92]

I always wonder what the overlap of this economically is. If you can afford all this home surveillance gear aren't you already likely to live in a place that's comically safe? Why are in particular Americans with their gated communities full of soccer moms and Labradors putting cameras on their house as if they're living on a US military base?

[kulahan]

Tons of people had cameras 20 years ago. It was 2006, not 1906. Besides, we've had pets for surveillance for hundreds of thousands of years. Literally nobody in history has thought "nah no need for security".

What a ridiculous way to try and be on a high horse.

[aenis]

Huh? Just roll your own, thats hacker news after all.

Frigrate nvr + cameras that are confined to internal network. Easy peasy. And you get to set it up exactly as you want.

p.s. i am not saying going with apple is a bad idea (i dont have an opinion), i am just saying thats far from the "only way to go"

[righthand]

Apple totally sells your data, they just anonymize it first. Why do you think they shifted towards services?

They also can give the Feds access to your iCloud data through a NSL. Just like Prism.

[macki0]

iCloud data can be end to end encrypted (https://support.apple.com/en-gb/108756)

[nozzlegear]

McDonald's can give my data to the feds through an NSL, yet I still buy their fries every now and then despite the risk.

[mwambua]

Do you have evidence of that?

[donohoe]

Citation needed